Incomprehensible

A frontier village not far from the Imperial capital.

The village farmed its land under the protection of the Rosnova family.

Since it was a village within the Empire rather than on the frontier, it was utterly peaceful.

KABOOM!

That was why it was exceedingly rare for the estate of that ancient knightly family to be half-destroyed.

The explosion had originated in the reception room.

Inside the blasted-open space, a man was kneeling with his head pressed to the floor.

Everything about him was pointed toward the floor, with the sole exception of his two raised hands.

Those hands were aimed at a girl, begging for mercy.

“Please…… I beg you, spare my life.”

A pitiful middle-aged voice pleaded.

“You know something.”

The girl responsible for half-destroying the building showed no sign of intending to release her anger.

“What were the last words I said to you?”

The middle-aged man’s throat seemed to have closed, leaving only wheezing through his nose.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll blow your head off.”

“You told me to keep a low profile and live as though I were dead.”

“I told you to live like the dead, yes. What do you think that means? It means keeping your head bowed so low that you don’t even make a sound while breathing. Didn’t it sound that way to you?”

“That is how I understood it.”

“And yet you went and tattled to Alexander that I was a dark mage?”

A blue light flickered in Erdes’s eyes.

There had been no choice for Erembald.

It was true that Alexander’s side had pressured him, but he had not been frightened of Alexander.

That was because Valdemar stood behind him.

If Valdemar became involved, not only the prospects of his two sons but also the very survival of his family would be at stake.

Erembald had received an offer he could not refuse.

“I had absolutely no intention of disregarding you, Head of the Magic Society.”

“Go eat shit. I could see you sticking your head out to screw me over. Do you think I’m blind? Were there only one or two people like you?”

Her hand moved as though she might cast a spell at any moment.

Killing nobles was a grave crime, but Erdes had already executed many nobles with her own hands.

Sweat streamed down Erembald’s face.

“I fully understand that you must be displeased by this matter. It was entirely my fault. But please give me just one chance. I have prepared something that should soothe your anger, Head of the Magic Society.”

Erdes withdrew the hand in which she had condensed mana and propped her chin on it.

“Let’s see it.”

There was not the slightest hint of expectation in Erdes’s voice.

She merely thought it would not be too late to kill him after seeing the worthless thing he had brought her.

Having seized his chance, Erembald hurriedly ordered a servant to bring the item.

“Here it is.”

What Erembald showed her was a wrapping cloth.

“What is this?”

“This is something connected to Anna, Ferda’s mother, whom you have been searching for so desperately.”

“What was this cloth used for?”

Even an object connected to someone was useless if it did not have a proper story attached to it.

If mere association had been enough, she could have simply brought the fork Anna had used.

“It’s the wrapping cloth used to wrap Ferda and bring him here.”

“Ferda……”

It was an object connected to both Ferda and his mother at the same time.

It was the most ideal object Erdes could have hoped for.

“I searched every corner of the house to find it. I even kept it prepared as it was so I could give it to you the moment you arrived……”

“Hmm……”

The mana held in her eyes disappeared.

Her anger might naturally have eased now that she could finally continue the investigation that had made no progress until then.

Erdes decided to show him mercy.

“Fine. I’ll forgive you.”

“Th-thank you—”

“Choose.”

“Pardon?”

“Choose one of you and your two sons.”

One finger on her left hand, two fingers on her right,

“Do you want one of your arms completely smashed, or should I half-break both your sons’ arms?”

Would he choose his own pain, or his family’s?

Erembald made his choice without needing to think for long.

“……Please, my arm,”

He chose his sons’ futures.

Erdes spoke as though the choice did not surprise her in the slightest.

“Of course. It’s the choice any father should make.”

CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH!!

“Urrrrgh……!”

Erembald’s arm bent and hung at a zigzag angle, as though several extra joints had appeared in it.

The pain went without saying.

Erdes turned around and left just like that.

“Hngh…… sob……”

Erembald shed tears as he watched Erdes walk away.

It was not only because of the pain he was feeling at that moment.

Relief that he had barely managed to protect his family was mixed into those tears as well.

* * *

After leaving the Rosnova estate, Erdes immediately prepared a magic circle.

Since the object had been kept at the estate, it was bound to carry some powerful aura from somewhere in the vicinity.

“Maroonz Eye.”

That spell, known as the Eye of the God of Knowledge, was among the highest-grade search magic.

Erdes tossed the cloth into the magic circle, and mana soon began to envelop it.

It skimmed over the threads woven together particle by particle, searching for information.

Following the will and tenacity of the archmage Erdes, it found the information she desired.

What she wanted was a place connected to this object.

As her desire and the information meshed, the mana drew a route marker.

Erdes followed that marker.

It led her to the rear gate of the Rosnova estate.

There was no doubt that this was where Erembald and Anna had first met.

“Then……”

Erdes summoned her magic staff.

It was time to begin a full-scale search.

This was high-level magic on an entirely different scale from Maroonz Eye.

The flow of mana alone was enough to shake the earth and turn the heavens upside down.

To handle this much mana, five sixth-circle mages would need to work together for a week before they could barely manifest it.

Yet the magic circle Erdes worked through was completed in only thirty minutes.

Finally, she chanted the name given to the spell.

“Nostalgia of Scholar.”

A great wave surged and made the surroundings ripple.

Under the force of her magic, the surroundings became a gray zone stripped of color.

This was magic that went beyond merely tracing the past; it used a medium as a door to recreate the past’s state.

Even if a face had been wrapped tightly in thick cloth, it became the past itself, ready to be unveiled.

In other words, it was tantamount to crossing time.

In the gray space, the wrapping cloth serving as the medium fluttered in the air as if riding the wind.

Then it formed itself into a fixed shape, wrapping around something as though it were being packaged.

A moment later, a woman appeared, holding the wrapped cloth in her arms.

A woman with blond hair and blue eyes.

There was no doubt that she was Anna Rosnova, Ferda’s birth mother.

Creeeak—

And soon, someone opened the door and appeared.

It was the young and extremely gaunt Erembald Rosnova.

-Excuse me, my lord.

Anna greeted him first.

-What is it? If the servants summoned me in such a hurry, it must be urgent.

-It is nothing of the sort. My name is Anna, and I have come here under orders.

-What orders?

-An order from the Sierra Order.

The woman showed him the emblem hanging around her neck.

Erembald frowned.

-Sierra…… I’m sorry, but I am a citizen of the Empire. An Imperial citizen belongs to the Alte Church.

-Then will you harm me?

-If you do not leave, I’ll have to follow the law, won’t I? I’m not cruel enough to harm a woman I met for the first time today. Besides, you have a child. I’ll give you food and clothing, so return quietly.

-You are a generous man. But unfortunately, I cannot do that.

-What?

-I am told that I must become your wife starting today.

-What nonsense are you talking about? Why should I take you in?

-Unfortunately, you have no choice, dear.

-Dear? How dare some Sierra trash come here in the middle of the night and say—urgh……

Erembald, who had been raging, clutched his head and writhed in pain.

The woman calmly placed a hand on Erembald’s shoulder.

-What’s wrong? Are you all right?

-Hm? Ah…… It’s nothing.

Erembald stared fixedly at her.

The wary look in his eyes relaxed as though he were looking at an old acquaintance.

-But why are you outside, wife?

The woman smiled and spoke as though nothing had happened.

-I like taking walks in the night breeze.

-What if our child catches a cold…… Come inside, quickly.

-Yes.

The woman entered so confidently, then stopped.

Erdes had stopped completely.

Watching the scene, Erdes said this.

“……What is this?”

She doubted her own eyes.

She carefully twisted her wrist and rewound the time that had passed.

She repeated the moment when Anna went from being an outsider to becoming a wife again and again.

Normally, even with a scene one could not understand, rewinding it about three times was enough for its outline to appear.

After all, Erdes was the greatest archmage on the Serdes Continent.

And yet she could not see it.

There was no trace whatsoever of a spell, magic, or even a gesture.

‘I was certain Anna was a demon…….’

Erdes believed that Ferda was the child of a demon.

If so, Anna had to be either a demon or one of its followers.

Yet there was no trace of a follower, nor any trace of a demon.

All she had done was say that it would happen that way.

‘I have no choice but to dig deeper into this woman’s identity…….’

It was at the moment she was about to touch Anna.

Erdes felt a chill.

Reflexively, she twisted her wrist and tried to rewind time again.

But it did not move.

Time remained stopped, and so did her wrist.

The one who should have been ruling this space was Erdes.

Yet she had begun to become subordinate to that space instead.

“Urgh!”

Erdes cast an emergency defensive spell to protect herself.

But even though the defensive spell unfolded, it could not stop the sensation that was devouring her.

Just as Erembald had become that way.

Erdes, too, seemed to be becoming the same.

-Oh?

The woman’s voice rang clearly through the frozen space.

‘That can’t be……!’

Erdes rolled her eyes toward Anna.

Anna was holding a baby.

Her eyes should unquestionably have been fixed on Erembald.

There was no way she could be making eye contact with Erdes like this.

Anna mouthed something and smiled as though deliberately showing it off.

-There’s an unexpected intruder.

Erdes realized.

Control had passed to the woman who should have been subordinate to this space.

She moved freely and approached Erdes.

-Are you the person who hates our Ferda so much?

Erdes blamed herself for having taken Anna lightly.

What she was facing was neither an ordinary woman nor a demon.

She was some transcendent being that could not exist on the Serdes Continent.

-As it happens, there was something I really wanted to say to you. Since this worked out nicely, make sure you engrave it clearly in those ears.

Anna whispered something into Erdes’s ear.

At that moment, Erdes felt her consciousness being sucked somewhere.

The gray that had spread around them shattered and vanished like a thin pane of glass, and Anna disappeared as well.

Erdes returned to reality, where color existed once more.

“Hah…… hah!”

Erdes broke into a cold sweat as she caught her breath.

How had she returned here?

Her body would not move at all, and she could not use her magic power either.

No matter how she thought about it, she could not have escaped by her own power.

Had that woman, Anna, released her?

That explanation felt unnatural as well.

Then who on earth had helped her?

“So there was someone capable of giving the greatest archmage on the continent this much trouble. How astonishing.”

The voice was youthful despite its mature manner of speaking.

Erdes knew that incongruity all too well.

Only then did she feel the sensation of a hand resting on her back.

“Get your hand off me!”

Erdes violently brushed the hand away and spun around.

Erdes’s staff pointed at a girl of a similar build.

She was the mother of all witches and the Big Sister.

It was Lucy Philiaz.

“Ungrateful wretch. I pulled you out of the water, and instead of thanking me, you try to slap me first?”

Lucy spoke with a relaxed expression as she puffed on her pipe.

“What the fuck are you talking about!? You didn’t save me from anything!”

“From mana exhaustion. You were trapped in a manifested space and on the verge of becoming a vegetable, were you not? I was the one who saved you.”

Erdes could feel it too from Lucy’s words.

The mana inside her body was barely hanging on.

The mana filling her now was surely Lucy Philiaz’s.

“Your vessel is pointlessly large, so this much is not enough. Take some more mana.”

“Get lost! Don’t touch me!”

Erdes moved away from Lucy as she reached out her hand again.

Erdes placed a hand on one of the formulas drawn on her staff.

The formula shattered, and Erdes absorbed the enormous amount of mana stored within into her body.

“So you had a trick like that left after all.”

Lucy muttered as though relieved.

Erdes glared at Lucy as if she intended to kill her.

But Lucy merely smiled faintly.

“Won’t you even thank me before you die?”

“Wouldn’t it have been better to just let me die?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot do that. I must keep the vow I made to myself.”

“Let your filthy witches keep their vows. I’m not one of those filthy people with Red Circles like you!”

Though Erdes did not hesitate to insult her, Lucy showed no sign of taking offense.

Erdes drew a finger through the air.

A teleportation magic circle was completed, and she threw herself into it.

Lucy quietly watched the spot where Erdes had already disappeared.

She was thoroughly familiar with this kind of hostility, so she was not surprised.

“You foolish girl.”

Lucy could only pity her.

“Even if you hate me and curse me…… I cannot turn my back on you.”

Lucy’s words reached no one and scattered emptily like gray smoke.

* * *

The office of the president of the Serdes Magic Society.

Blue, the president’s secretary, was handling the work Erdes had left behind as usual.

‘Why do I have to take all the abuse…….’

Blue lamented their lot.

The people who would not have dared make a peep if Erdes were there did not hold back with Blue.

They had become the target of every complaint and protest that should have been directed at the president of the Magic Society.

The only strange thing was that Blue’s hair roots were still alive.

‘This time, I absolutely won’t let it slide!’

Blue steeled themself as they stamped the documents for approval.

The moment that rogue mage arrived, they would yell at the top of their lungs.

At last, the gate opened for the long-awaited runaway rogue to return home.

“Madam President!”

Blue let out all the grievances they had been saving up.

“Where in the world have you been!? Didn’t you promise me that you would work after that hearing?”

“……”

“We’re terribly behind on work, you know? If this keeps up, we really won’t be able to handle it……”

When there was no response even after they had gone on for a while, Blue belatedly looked at Erdes’s face.

She was not listening at all.

Instead of her usual arrogant expression, she looked like someone possessed by something.

“Madam President?”

“……”

Blue placed a hand on her shoulder.

Only then did she seem to regain consciousness, turning her head to look at Blue.

“Are you all right? Your complexion……”

Blue asked with genuine concern.

Erdes stared at Blue’s face for a long while before answering.

“……I’m fine.”

It was only three syllables, but Blue could tell.

Erdes was dejected, as though she had been beaten up somewhere.

“I’m going to spend some time in the meditation room.”

“Ah, yes. Please rest……”

Too afraid to ask what had happened, Blue could only let her go.

Erdes entered the meditation room and forced herself to sit cross-legged.

She needed to empty her mind and clear her thoughts while circulating her Blue Circle.

But Anna still remained in Erdes’s mind.

She wondered whether she had been attacked by magic or some mysterious power, but it was not that.

The reason the woman remained in her mind was that Erdes could not understand her.

‘If that woman claimed to be his mother,’

‘if she was at least someone responsible for a child,’

‘then she had left behind words no such person could ever have said.’

-Stop my son from becoming happy with all your might.